Archive for the ‘Well-being’ Category

Ayurveda is a culture of well-being. Its basis are the understanding of the human being as a whole and that there can only be health if the trio ‘body-mind-spirit’ is balanced. According to Ayurveda, the cause of all our diseases is the accumulation of toxins in our body. If we adopt ways to eliminate the existent toxins and to prevent new ones to show up in our body, we would have achieved complete health in the broader sense – total physical, mental and emotional well-being.

On Friday morning I took a culinary Ayurveda course with chef Lakshmi Harilela from ‘Love True Food’, here in Hong Kong. Our group learned some of the Ayurveda theory and cooked a few delicious recipes which later became our lunch. Lakshimi is another great example of someone who is passionate about what she does. She found balance in Ayurveda and runs her business with so much love that she decided to name it just that; ‘Love True Food’ (www.lovetruefood.com).

It’s refreshing as an entrepreneur to find others who live the same way I do and who love what they do. As a coach who helps entrepreneurial women, it is even more satisfying to see a young entrepreneurial woman who is so committed to her passion of spreading the Ayurveda message through her business. Thanks Lakshmi for a phenomenal class!

In the beginning of this week, right after the most sacred day of the Jewish calendar – Yom Kippur, my husband and I took a trip to China to see the famous terracotta warriors. I was on cloud nine since I had just cleansed my soul with the 25 hours fast of food and water we observe during Yom Kippur that is meant to remove us from our earthly self and connect us with the Divine. I felt like I was ready to face the world again renewed and filled with new insights.

When I got to China and began experienced the unfamiliar enviroment and the clash of the cultural differences, I reminded myself in a very ‘coach-like’ way, that their way of doing things works for them just as mine works for me. Children were peeing on the streets, cars were honking non-stop, people were trying to get just another dollar out of us, and that was all part of the experience. We were there to see the warriors and to have a good time.

Here is when the Yom Kippur liturgy came to mind. We were called to repent, change our ways and get back to the right path. It’s one thing when we are inside the comfort of our synagogue, surrounded by people who are committed to the same experience. We are all Jews and used to more or less the same culture. While walking on the streets of Xian and being surrounded by Chinese people who do things differently, think differently and behave in ways that challenge my notion of cleanness, politeness and what’s the right thing to do, now that’s another thing! How can I change my ways here? How do I not judge and feel like we have all the answers as my lovely husband argues in Mandarin with the taxi driver about where he is taking us? It turns out he was taking us to the right place and we were the confused ones! Mind you, this is not my first time in China. I’ve been there many times and knew very well what I was going to find.

The rubber hits the road when we go out of our comfort zones and are called to walk our talk. For me, going to the heart of China one day after Yom Kippur was the best experience I could have had. It dawned on me that I had just asked G-d to have mercy while judging my actions during the past year, and here I am in China having no trouble judging their ways without an ounce of compassion. Ooops, that hurts…

The great thing about it all is that awareness, which is the first step to growth, played its part beautifully. The proximity of Yom Kippur rang a bell louder than I could bear and my actions where immediately steered toward finding the commonalities between me and all my fellow Chinese. As I showed compassion, understanding and gratitude toward people, I got the same and more right back; a friendly smile, a free mocha from Starbucks, bread and apples from the hotel to take on our trip to the see the warriors, an immense amount of courtesy and refreshing cold water from our guide/driver.

All our faults are only opportunities to achieve more, all our not so wonderful traits are challenges offering us opportunitites to grow and choose to do better. It is all for the good. Keep feeding your awareness with the claritythat comes from knowing yourself! It will never fail to show up when you need it.

Wow! I live in a busy city! Hong Kong’s lights are almost never out and I can see boats going back and forth even at the wee hours of the morning! No wonder putting emphasis on our “busyness” has become a way of life here and in most places around our busy world.

One of the most common responses to the greeting “How are you doing?” has become “I’m so busy.” It’s very tempting to start a conversations with these words because most of us are indeed very busy. The problem with this response is that it sets the tone for the rest of the conversation. It puts emphasis on “busyness” by reminding both parties how stressful and complicated life has become. Instead of choosing to spend a moment saying hello to a friend, we are choosing to spend even our spare moments emphasizing and reminding ourselves how busy we are.

Experiment this week with eliminating any discussion about how busy you are. When saying hello to a friend, focus on listening how he/she is really doing. If the conversation steers toward the “busyness” aspect of his/her life, offer to respond in a different way. Shift the focus of the conversation to something that he/she accomplished, something that made you smile, some good news you’ve just heard. The people you speak to will sense the permission from you to talk about something other than their own “busyness” and it will help them feel less stressed.

So, for this coming week, everytime someone asks you how you are doing, say anything except “I am really busy”.

I will be interested to hear from you if there were any shifts in your thinking! Drop us a note!

Many people make more money than they ever dreamed possible, yet are more financially stressed than ever before. In this current financial crisis we are going through many can relate to this reality. What a vast majority of people do as they earn more money is to continue to spend as much, if not more, than they make. They buy a bigger home, a nicer car, go on more expensive vacations, wear more expensive clothing and so on. They spend, spend and spend some more. Before you insist you will never do this, consider that you probably will – unless you conciously make a vow not to.

This doesn’t mean that you cannot have nice things or that you don’t deserve them. Keep in mind however, that you also deserve a peaceful and happy life, and that material things don’t necessarily make you happy. Happiness comes from within, by the way you relate to what you have, not from your actual possessions. If you can manage to keep your desires in check, to live at or beneath your means, you will discover a different type of abundance: Peace. You will be able to stay calm and relaxed during times such as this one we are living, or other crazy ones you might witness in the future. That is amongst the greatest gifts of a lifetime.

A move is not the easiest thing in the world – especially to the other side of the planet! However, this move got me thinking about waiting. It is something most of us don’t really care for – waiting is a pain right? Now, if you don’t know the place, the habits and the costumes of your new home, you will have to face a learning curve. That has a lot of waiting involved.

I realized that there are certain things that will come with time. There is absolutely no way that I can hurry the process and make it happen faster. Each one of us has our own learning curve and it obeys certain traits that we recognize in ourselves – our own pace, our own habits and our own processing time. It’s interesting to see how my husband and I have different strengths and different ways of learning. It has been a pleasure to witness that my own waiting has not been painful. I am floating with time and welcoming the insights that are coming to me. I am taking one day at the time while new habits become incorporated. It will take time for me to feel more local. I accept that and I decided to enjoy the “newcomer” status for now.

In our own lives we find ourselves in new situations all the time. Situations where the waiting game is on wheater we like it or not. If we immerse ourselves in it and recognize that there is a learning curve, we will be able to face the new with a great deal of compassion for ourselves. It’s not giving up – it’s simply breathing! Going deeper into our own selves and realizing our limitations and the flow taking place. Jumping into the river of life and letting it take you to your destination without struggle. Ah, what a blissful river…